How things have changed....

Okay. So before I arrived in Thailand I would think nothing skipping through the house (okay, not quite but hopefully you get my point!) marching into the bathroom or strutting (sometimes quite well but I'm happy to admit I'd usually miss my footing and stumble in!). That was then, this is now. My how things have changed.

As I approach my hut I now stomp up the stairs, rattle my keys before I put them in the lock, bang on the door and cough before I've even entered. Am I mad? Possibily. The truth is every time I approach my hut I start my mantra of 'please don't let there be any bugs in my room'. God forbid there are any creatures in there. The people staying in the hut next door have thrown me a few odd looks. Do I care - no. It's about survival!

I enter (stomping and coughing which isn't hard as I've been smoking like it's going out of fashion....while reading the Allen Carr book!), look at all corners of the floor, eyes glid round the floor, then I assess the ceiling. Assuming that's all clear I head to the bathroom. Do exactly the same. Check the loo seat, behind and underneath. Then I stop and listen hard incase anything is scuttling around. I do this about 4/5 times a day.

Any noise, flutter, movement of any kind is met with a sharp glance, feet up on the bed and little yelp. I try to consol myself that having worked in PR I've dealt with much worse 'creatures' but it doesn't help.

I'm heading into the jungle tomorrow where I'll be staying in a tree house. Can you bear it? Me in a tree house in the bloody jungle. To say I'm aprehensive would be an understatement. I've brought 4 bottles of mosi spray with so much deet in them I'm afraid it might ruin my tan or worse still burn the top layer of my skin off. God knows how I'm going to cope. Have considered buying a bee keepers suit but oddly enough they don't sell them on a diving island. Help!